I follow a process to find product problems that should be avoided, find lower-cost products that avoid those problems, choose the one most believably "good":

I follow a process to find product problems that should be avoided, find lower-cost products that avoid those problems, choose the one most believably "good": 1. Find lower-cost options that have a lot of reviews. 2. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives. 3. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin), and use the steps below to know what issues MOST of these kind of products have. 4. Check much more expensive versions of the product for desirable features / problems solved, e.g. Bluetooth earbuds with a physical or app-based "re-pairing" function. 5. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid, but note what kinds of problems are common. 6. Check most helpful negative review when available 7. Search reviews and questions for the issues you uncovered in steps 3 and 4. Sometimes MOST products have similar issues regardless of price—there may not be ANY product worth buying, e.g. home blood pressure monitors.